footballfandomcom-20200223-history
UEFA Europa League 2018-19
Chelsea | count =2 | second_other = Arsenal | matches =205 | goals =565 | attendance = | top_scorer = Olivier Giroud (11 goals) | prevseason = 2017–18 | nextseason = 2019–20 }} The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan. The winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League will earn the right to play against the winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. They will also automatically qualify for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage, and if they have already qualified through their league performance, the berth reserved will be given to the third-placed team of the 2018–19 Ligue 1, the 5th-ranked association according to next season's access list. As the title holders of Europa League, Atlético Madrid qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, albeit they have qualified before the final through their league performance. They will only be able to defend their title if they finish third in their group in the Champions League group stage. Format changes On 9 December 2016, UEFA confirmed the reforming plan for the UEFA Champions League for the 2018–2021 cycle, which was announced on 26 August 2016. As per the new regulations, all teams that are eliminated in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds will get a second chance in the Europa League. Association team allocation A total of 214 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *Associations 1–51 (except Liechtenstein) each have three teams qualify. *Associations 52–54 each have two teams qualify. *Liechtenstein and Kosovo (association 55) each have one team qualify (Liechtenstein organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Kosovo as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee). *Moreover, 55 teams eliminated from the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League (default number is 57, but two fewer teams compete in the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League). Association ranking For the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2017 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2012–13 to 2016–17. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: * – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League | | |} Distribution In the default access list, originally 17 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round are transferred to the Europa League second qualifying round (Champions Path). However, one fewer loser would be transferred since the Champions League title holders already qualified for the group stage via their domestic league. Therefore, only 19 teams entered the Champions Path second qualifying round (one of them would be drawn to receive a bye to the third qualifying round). In addition, originally three losers from the Champions League second qualifying round (League Path) are transferred to the Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path). However, one fewer loser would be transferred since the Europa League title holders already qualified for the group stage via their domestic league. As a result, the following changes to the access list was made: *The cup winners of association 18 (Denmark) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round. *The cup winners of association 25 (Norway) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round. *The cup winners of associations 50 and 51 (Wales and Faroe Islands) entered the first qualifying round instead of the preliminary round. Redistribution rules A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules: *When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place". *When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible. *For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions. Teams The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: *CW: Cup winners *2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position *LC: League Cup winners *RW: Regular season winners *PW: End-of-season Europa League play-offs winners *UCL: Transferred from the Champions League **GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage **PO: Losers from the play-off round **Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round **Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round **Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round **PR: Losers from the preliminary round } |width=25%| |width=25%| |width=25%| |- | | | | |} Notably one team that is not playing a national top division takes part in the competition; Vaduz (representing Liechtenstein) played in 2017–18 Swiss Challenge League, which is Switzerland's 2nd tier. ;Notes Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise). Matches in the qualifying (including preliminary and play-off) and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts. From this season, the kick-off times starting from the group stage will be slightly changed to 18:55 CET and 21:00 CET. Kick-off times starting from the quarter-finals will be 21:00 CET. Preliminary round In the preliminary, qualifying and play-off rounds, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients (used for Main Path only), and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. The draw for the preliminary round was held on 12 June 2018. The first legs were played on 26 and 28 June, and the second legs was played on 5 July 2018. }} |} Qualifying rounds Note: All qualified teams below are listed with their 2018 UEFA club coefficients (CC). A new club coefficient system will be used for seeding starting from the 2018–19 season, which is calculated by the maximum of either the club points in the previous five years or 20% of the association points over the same period (instead of the sum of the two values). In cases where the club coefficients are to be determined (teams from their associations are still active in 2017–18 UEFA club competitions), the latest club coefficients are listed. First qualifying round The first legs were played on 10, 11 and 12 July, and the second legs were played on 17, 18 and 19 July 2018. }} |'Domžale'|SVN|2–2|1–1}} |Zaria Bǎlți|MDA|1–0|1–1}} }} |'Laçi'|ALB|2–1|0–1}} |'Honvéd'|HUN|2–1|0–4}} }} |Levski Sofia|BUL|1–0|2–3}} |'Željezničar'|BIH|0–2|1–3}} |} ;Notes Second qualifying round The draw for the second qualifying round Champions Path was held on 19 June 2018, 16:00 CEST, and the draw for the second qualifying round Main Path was held on 20 June 2018, 14:50 CEST. Seeding A total of 18 teams were involved in the second qualifying round Champions Path draw. *Seeded: 15 of the 16 losers of the Champions League first qualifying round (excluding the losers of the Champions League first qualifying round given a bye to the third qualifying round as decided by an additional draw held after the Champions League first qualifying round draw) *Unseeded: the three losers of the Champions League preliminary round They were divided into three groups of six teams, where five teams were seeded and one team were unseeded. Teams from Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo, could not be drawn into the same tie, and if such a potential pairing was drawn, the second team drawn in the current tie would be moved to the next tie. |+Champions Path |} |+Main Path |Sarajevo|BIH|2–2|8–0}} }} |Domžale|SVN|0–0|1–1}} |'Pyunik'|ARM|2–1|0–1}} |'Sarpsborg 08'|NOR|2–1|0–1}} }} }} |} ;Notes Third qualifying round The third qualifying round is split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and Main Path (for cup winners and league non-champions). The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 23 July 2018. The first legs were played on 7 and 9 August, and the second legs were played on 16 August 2018. |+Champions Path |Valur|ISL|1–0|1–2}} |} |+Main Path }} }} |Braga|POR|1–1|2–2}} |LASK Linz|AUT|1–0|1–2}} |} Play-off round The play-off round is split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and Main Path (for cup winners and league non-champions). The draw for the play-off round was held on 6 August 2018. The first legs were played on 23 August, and the second legs were played on 30 August 2018. |+Champions Path |'Astana'|KAZ|1–0|0–1 }} |} |+Main Path |'Apollon Limassol'|CYP|3–2|0–1}} |'Copenhagen'|DEN|0–0|0–0 }} |} ;Notes Group stage The draw for the group stage was held on 31 August 2018 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on their 2018 UEFA club coefficients. In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays are 20 September, 4 October, 25 October, 8 November, 29 November, and 13 December 2018. A total of 27 national associations are represented in the group stage. Akhisarspor, Chelsea, F91 Dudelange, Jablonec, Rangers, RB Leipzig, Sarpsborg 08, Spartak Moscow and Spartak Trnava will make their debut appearances in the UEFA Europa League group stage (although Chelsea, Rangers, RB Leipzig and Spartak Moscow have already competed in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase after a third place in the UEFA Champions League group stage, while Rangers and Spartak Moscow have appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage). F91 Dudelange will be the first team from Luxembourg to play in either the Champions League or Europa League group stage. Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H Group I Group J Group K Group L Knockout phase In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows: *In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other. *In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other. Bracket |0|1|1|GER|Bayer Leverkusen|0|1|1 |CRO|Dinamo Zagreb|1|0|1|POR|'Benfica' |0|3|3 |GER|'Eintracht Frankfurt'|0|1|1|ITA|Inter Milan|0|0|0 |ESP|Sevilla|2|3|5|CZE|'Slavia Prague' |2|4|6 |ENG|'Chelsea'|3|5|8|UKR|Dynamo Kyiv|0|0|0 |FRA|Rennes|3|0|3|ENG|'Arsenal'|1|3|4 |ITA|'Napoli'|3|1|4|AUT|Red Bull Salzburg|0|3|3 |RUS|Zenit Saint Petersburg|1|1|2|ESP|'Villarreal'|3|2|5 |ESP|'Valencia'|2|1|3|RUS|Krasnodar|1|1|2 |POR|Benfica|4|0|4|GER|'Eintracht Frankfurt' |2|2|4 |CZE|Slavia Prague|0|3|3|ENG|'Chelsea'|1|4|5 |ENG|'Arsenal'|2|1|3|ITA|Napoli|0|0|0 |ESP|Villarreal|1|0|1|ESP|'Valencia'|3|2|5 |GER|Eintracht Frankfurt||||ENG|Chelsea||| |ENG|Arsenal||||ESP|Valencia||| | |Winners of semi-final 2|| |Winners of semi-final 1|}} Round of 32 The draw for the round of 32 was held on 17 December 2018, 13:00 CET. The first legs were played on 12 and 14 February, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 February 2019. |Bayer Leverkusen|GER|0–0|1–1}} |} Round of 16 The draw for the round of 16 was held on 22 February 2019, 13:00 CET. The first legs will be played on 7 March, and the second legs will be played on 14 March 2019. }} }} |} Quarter-finals The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2019, 13:00 CET. |} Semi-finals The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2019, 13:00 CET (after the quarter-final draw). |} Final The final will be played on 29 May 2019 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku National Stadium. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) will be determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw. |time = 23:00 AZT |team1 = Chelsea |score = 4–1 |report = UEFA Report BBC Report |team2 = Arsenal |goals1 = Giroud Pedro Hazard |goals2 = Iwobi |stadium = Olympic Stadium, Baku |attendance = |referee = Gianluca Rocchi (Italy) }} See also *2018–19 UEFA Champions League *2019 UEFA Super Cup External links *UEFA Europa League (official website) 2018-19 Category:2018–19 UEFA Europa League